DQCI WARRANTY SATISFACTION SURVEY: TVSE, WeP, Intel Top The Charts

In a never-before initiative, DQCI conducted a nationwide survey among 132 key partners across the country to get their opinion on the implementation of warranty policies by 21 leading vendors. Result: DQCI Warranty Satisfaction Index. And the top two indices belong to TVSE and WeP Peripherals, Intel is a close third.

PARAMETER-WISE SATISFACTION INDEX ADHERENCE TO TURNAROUND TIME TRANSPARENCY IN WARRANTY POLICY DOA POLICY AVAILABILITY OF WARRANTY POLICY PROCEDURE OF VALIDATION OF A PRODUCT UNDER WARRANTY RESPONDENTS' CHOICE OF VENDOR WITH BEST WARRANTY POLICIES PC HDD MONITOR MOTHERBOARD PRINTER NETWORKING PRODUCTS ODD UPs INPUT DEVICE

Exactly an year ago, in its Silver Club issue, DQCI presented a first-of-its-kind ready-reckoner on warranty policies of top 10 vendors in the country. In the same issue, we had also promised to come out with an index measuring performance of vendors with regards to warranty issues. And true to our word, this year we took a never-before initiative of coming up with a Warranty Satisfaction Index for 21 leading vendors across the country. 

And do the results surprise? Indeed, quite unexpectedly, TVSE and WeP Peripherals top the warranty satisfaction index. Chipmaker Intel comes a close third. 

REGIONS, PARAMETERS AND PRODUCTS

The satisfaction index was arrived as a result of a nationwide survey conducted wherein 132 partners participated. The vendors were rated across five parameters on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest level of satisfaction (Refer box on methodology).

TVSE scored 3.08 while WeP 3.04 on the satisfaction index. Intel tagged close at 3.01 followed by HP and APC with 2.87 and 2.80 points, respectively. The next five vendors on the rating scale were: Epson, IBM, Samsung, D-Link and Asus, in that order (Refer box: National Warranty Satisfaction Index).

We carried out a regional analysis of the survey results as well (Refer visual: Region-wise Satisfaction Index). While TVSE tops in West, HP leads in East with APC and D-Link emerging better than others in North and South, respectively. 

The five key parameters on which the respondents rated vendors on were: Availability of warranty policy, transparency in the policy, adherence to committed turnaround times, DOA policy and the procedure of validation of a product under warranty. 

While HP earned favors by scoring highest (3.35) on the first parameter, TVSE scored maximum (3.28 and 3.17) on the next two parameters. Intel's rating was best on the last two parameters (3.22 and 2.65). But what does come as a revelation is the low ratings scored by all the vendors with regards to the procedure they adopt to validate a product under warranty. 

The survey also asked respondents to name the top two vendors offering best warranty services across nine different product categories (Refer charts: Product-wise Satisfaction Index). Here HP with 62% votes emerged as the preferred PC vendor with IBM in tow. It was HP again in the printer category followed by TVSE and
WeP. 

But the real surprise came in HDDs. Despite many recent support-related issues, 48% of the respondents felt Seagate was a good vendor with regards to its warranty policies. However, the
majority (52%) were with Samsung. It was Samsung again in monitors, with a good 57% respondents favoring it. In motherboards, it was Intel, and D-Link in networking products who found favors among majority of the 132 partners who took the survey. APC was the preferred vendor for warranty policies in the UPS category.

BEYOND THE FIGURES

But more than revealing which vendor scores how much on the warranty scale, the satisfaction index points towards a glaring truth. That of no one scoring 4 or even coming close to it. And yet, we are not mentioning the ultimate achievement of scoring a 5 out of 5 on the satisfaction index. 

This underlines a great need for vendors to come face-to-face with the ground realities. Simply, coming up with a perfect-sounding warranty policy is not sufficient. Partners look forward to a sincere and honest implementation as well. 

In these competitive times, where margins are not easy to come by, warranty headache is the last thing that any partner wants to bear. Majority of the time, warranty-related issues may not be directly cost-related but it puts a dent to a partner's performance in the long run.

It is one thing to have well-defined warranty policies on paper but it is totally another to implement the same having the right kind of mindset. The more the vendors put in sincere efforts to implement warranty policies, the more is the partner satisfaction. 

GOLDIE

METHODOLOGY

The satisfaction index was arrived at by the results of a survey carried out among 132 partners across the country. The respondents represented a fair mix of dealers, resellers, systems integrators as well as opinion makers among leading trade associations. 

In all, partners from 16 cities participated in the survey. The respondents were asked to rate 21 leading vendors on five parameters giving them a rating of 1-5, where 5 implied highest satisfaction. The parameters were: Availability of warranty policy, transparency in the policy, adherence to committed turnaround times, DOA policy and the procedure of validation of a product under warranty. 

Once the survey data was aggregated, ratings for individual parameter for every vendor was totaled and an average for the same was arrived at. To minimize the skew in results, the averaging was done counting the highest number of responses for a particular vendor. The regional averages were then totaled up to arrive at overall indices, which finally resulted in the final satisfaction index. Of the 21 vendors, those who received ratings from less than 50% respondents in a particular region, were not considered in that region. 

A regional analysis was done on the same resulting in a region-wise satisfaction index. Then this data was further collated to come up with a national index. An individual product category-wise ranking was also arrived at on the basis of votes given by the respondents.

METHODOLOGY

The satisfaction index was arrived at by the results of a survey carried out among 132 partners across the country. The respondents represented a fair mix of dealers, resellers, systems integrators as well as opinion makers among leading trade associations. 

In all, partners from 16 cities participated in the survey. The respondents were asked to rate 21 leading vendors on five parameters giving them a rating of 1-5, where 5 implied highest satisfaction. The parameters were: Availability of warranty policy, transparency in the policy, adherence to committed turnaround times, DOA policy and the procedure of validation of a product under warranty. 

Once the survey data was aggregated, ratings for individual parameter for every vendor was totaled and an average for the same was arrived at. To minimize the skew in results, the averaging was done counting the highest number of responses for a particular vendor. The regional averages were then totaled up to arrive at overall indices, which finally resulted in the final satisfaction index. Of the 21 vendors, those who received ratings from less than 50% respondents in a particular region, were not considered in that region. 

A regional analysis was done on the same resulting in a region-wise satisfaction index. Then this data was further collated to come up with a national index. An individual product category-wise ranking was also arrived at on the basis of votes given by the respondents.